Richard Morrison

When is the right time for musicians to take their leave from the stage?

- Richard Morrison

Has she gone too soon? Should she have gone at all? And won't she miss it? For once, the main talking-point at this year’s Last Night of the Proms wasn't the conductor's speech or whether the EU flags outnumbered the Union Jacks. It was Alison Balsom’s announcement that the concert — in which she dazzled playing pieces by Hummel and Bernstein — would be her last as a trumpet soloist. She is, it seems, retiring at 46.

When I asked her why, I received an honest answer: that the trumpet’s solo repertoire is too limited and she is frankly bored with playing it. Balsom was also candid enough to admit that we would be having ‘a very different conversation’ if she wasn’t married to a successful film director (Sir Sam Mendes) and therefore not in desperate need of another concert fee.